CHAPTER 6:MY HEART DIED TWO YEARS AGO KAYLA

Kayla’s POV 

The ride back from the regional summit was drowned in a heavy, suffocating silence.

Lucian sat on the far side of the dark leather back seat of the car, staring out the tinted window into the blackness of the passing trees. His jaw was set so tight I could see the muscles flexing near his cheek. The dark, terrifying anger that had flared up when Alpha Marcus asked about an heir hadn't completely faded; it hung in the air between us like thick smoke.

I kept my hands folded in my lap, staring at my silver ring. My skin still felt cold where his hand had touched mine for the photographers' cameras. The moment the lenses stopped flashing, he dropped my hand as though I burned him.

When we finally returned to the Ravenwood estate, it was nearly midnight. The house was quiet, lit only by small wall lamps in the hallways. Instead of heading straight up to his office or walking out into the woods as he usually did, Lucian walked into the private dining room on the ground floor.

A small table had been set for two, with silver covers keeping a late dinner warm. I stood in the doorway, watching him pull off his dark suit jacket and toss it over the back of a chair. He sat down at the head of the table, pouring himself a glass of dark red wine.

My heart hammered against my ribs. I knew I should have turned around and walked up to my room. I knew I should have kept my head down, just as I had done for the past few days. But seeing the way he looked at Alpha Marcus—seeing that raw, ugly disgust when the topic of our future was brought up—had opened a deep, aching wound in my chest that wouldn't stop bleeding.

I couldn't live like this. I couldn't spend months or years living in the same house with a man who treated me like an invisible shadow until he needed a polite dress to show off to rival packs.

I stepped into the room and pulled out the chair across from him.

Lucian didn't look up from his glass. "I told the servants to leave dinner out in case you were hungry. You don't need to stay down here."

"I don't want food, Lucian," I said, my voice quiet but steady.

He took a slow sip of wine, his icy grey eyes finally shifting to my face. His expression was completely blank, devoid of any warmth or interest. "Then go to sleep. It has been a long night."

"We need to talk," I said, leaning forward slightly, my hands gripping the edge of the dark wooden table.

 "We need to talk about tonight. About what happened back at the hotel." I added.

"Nothing happened," he replied flatly, setting his glass back down on the wood with a quiet clink. "Alpha Marcus stepped out of line with an improper question, and I shut him down. End of story."

"It wasn't just an improper question," I said, my voice trembling slightly before I caught myself.

 "It was the way you reacted. You looked at him like the very idea of us having a future—the idea of us having a family—was repulsive to you. Everyone in that room felt it, Lucian. I felt it." My eyes burned  despite how I tried my best not to break in his presence.

Lucian leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his broad chest. His eyes narrowed, watching me with a look of cold impatience. "What do you want me to say, Kayla? Do you want me to lie to you? Do you want me to tell you that I plan on playing happy family with you behind closed doors?"

The bluntness of his words felt like a physical slap across my face. I swallowed the dry lump forming in my throat, forcing myself to hold his stare.

"I don't expect you to lie to me," I whispered, the pain in my chest tightening until it was hard to draw a full breath.

 "And I know why I came here. I know this marriage was arranged to protect my father's pack and secure your borders. But we are living under the same roof. I am managing your household, fixing your supply lines, and standing beside you in front of rival Alphas. Is it really too much to ask for basic human kindness? Are we really going to spend our entire lives acting like strangers who hate each other?"

Lucian stared at me for a long, agonizing moment. The candlelight flickered on the table, casting sharp shadows across his sharp jawline and the hard, unyielding lines of his face.

When he finally spoke, his voice was low, smooth, and utterly devoid of mercy.

"You are confusing duty with desire, Kayla," he said softly, each word cutting through the quiet room like a thin blade. "Look at me."

I didn't want to, but I couldn't tear my eyes away.

"I took you as my Luna because your father was a respected Alpha, and your lands were vital to my borders," Lucian continued, his tone dry and matter-of-fact. "I give you respect as the Luna of this pack. I give you protection, food, and authority over this house. That was the deal. That was the contract your father agreed to before he died."

He paused, leaning forward until his face was only a few feet from mine across the table. His grey eyes were as cold and dead as winter ice.

"Affection was never part of the deal," he said quietly. "Warmth was never part of the deal. My heart died two years ago in the woods, Kayla. I don't have love to give you. I don't have affection to give you. And if you came into this marriage hoping that one day I would look at you the way a man looks at a woman he loves, then you are wasting your time."

Every single word landed straight on my heart, shattering the tiny, foolish hope I hadn't even realized I was still holding onto.

A single tear threatened to slip out of my eye, but I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper, forcing it back. I wouldn't cry in front of him. I wouldn't let him see how deeply his words had cut me.

"I see," I whispered. My voice sounded small and hollow, even to my own ears.

"Good," Lucian said, reaching for his wine glass again as if the conversation was completely finished, as if he hadn't just broken a piece of my soul into dust. "Now go to bed."

I sat frozen in my chair, staring at the white cloth covering the table. The silence between us grew heavier, thicker, until the air felt like iron pressing against my chest. I have my answer now. There was no slow burn coming. There was no hidden warmth waiting behind his cold mask. I was just a contract on a piece of paper, bound to a man who would never love me.

Suddenly, a loud, sharp vibration broke the quiet.

Lucian’s black phone was sitting on the wooden table beside his plate, buzzing rapidly against the hard surface. The screen lit up with the words BETA COLE- URGENT.

Lucian frowned, his brow furrowing as he reached out and picked up the device. He pressed it to his ear, his tone dropping back into his stern Alpha voice. "What is it, Cole ? I told you I wasn't to be disturbed tonight unless—"

He stopped mid-sentence.

I watched his face, expecting him to give a quick order or bark a command about border patrols or rogue sightings.

Instead, the color slowly drained out of Lucian’s face.

His skin went completely pale, turning as white as ash. The sharp, controlled look in his grey eyes vanished, replaced by a raw, naked look of utter shock and terror that I had never seen on him before. His jaw went slack, his lips parting slightly as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

"Say that again," Lucian whispered. His voice trembled so violently it didn't even sound like his own.

Whatever the voice on the phone said next made the entire world stop.

Lucian’s hand shook so hard he couldn't hold his grip. The wine glass slipped from his fingers, crashing against the edge of the table and shattering into a hundred sharp pieces on the hardwood floor. Red wine spilled across the pale wood like dark blood, pooling around his boots.

He didn't even notice the broken glass. He didn't notice the wine soaking into his pants.

He just stood up so fast his chair flew backward, crashing to the floor behind him, his pale eyes staring blindly at the dark window.

"Where?" Lucian choked out, his chest heaving as if he couldn't get enough air. "Where did they find her?”